WASHINGTON (JTA) -- In the wake of the shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn., Jewish groups are looking to build alliances and back legislation to strengthen gun control laws.

Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said that his group is assembling a coalition that would be ready to act once the right legislation comes along.

The point now is to create the atmosphere in which there is a demand for action, using our voices, organizing the parents in our pews, Saperstein told JTA in an interview. When the parents across America start crying out for effective action, if there's religious leadership, it will galvanize the community to create the moral demand that moves toward sensible legislation.

Staff at the RAC, the locus in the Jewish community for gun control initiatives in past decades, spent Monday reaching out to other Jewish leaders, as well as to leaders of other faith communities.

The best way is to rally the faith community and come together around shared policy, said RAC spokeswoman Rachel Laser.

A number of Jewish groups have indicated that they will back a gun control bill proposed Monday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the first since the Newtown shooting. It would ban more than 100 assault weapons and ammunition clips that contain more than 10 rounds.

The Newtown killer, Adam Lanza, used a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle registered in the name of his mother, whom he killed before heading to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where he murdered 20 children and six adults before killing himself. Police have said he used multiple clips, although their capacity has not been publicly reported.

Jared Loughner, the gunman in the January 2011 attack in Tucson, Ariz., that grievously wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and killed six others, had a 33-round magazine.

The legislation, Feinstein said in a statement Monday, will be carefully focused on the most dangerous guns that have killed so many people over the years while protecting the rights of gun owners by exempting hundreds of weapons that fall outside the bills scope.

Feinstein helped draft the last iteration of an assault weapons ban, in 1994. It lapsed in 2004, after the National Rifle Association fought against its renewal.

B'nai B'rith International on Monday demanded the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.

"Assault weapons enable a shooter to fire multiple rounds without stopping to reload as they automatically expel and load ammunition with each trigger-pull," B'nai B'rith said in a statement. "There is no sane, acceptable, reasonable need in a civilian setting to fire off large rounds of ammunition."

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs circulated a petition through its constituent Jewish community relations councils that calls for "meaningful legislation to limit access to assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines, aggressive enforcement of firearm regulations, robust efforts to ensure that every person in need has access to quality mental health care, and a serious national conversation about violence in media and games."

Officials of Jewish groups planning on action said the likeliest vehicle would be Feinsteins legislation, which she plans to introduce as soon as Congress reconvenes, in January.

We have been in touch with Sen. Feinstein, said Susan Turnbull, who chairs Jewish Women International, a group that has as a principal focus combating domestic violence. We support her bill.

The National Council of Jewish Women, which has also taken a leading role in the Jewish community on gun control initiatives in the past, announced its support Tuesday for the Feinstein legislation and for legislation proposed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that would tighten background checks. The NCJW has in the past mobilized a grassroots network of activists to push for gun control legislation. Hadassah also called on Congress to introduce reforms.

The United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and the Conservative movements Rabbinical Assembly on Monday called not only for a ban on assault weapons, but for longer purchase times, deeper background checks, coding ammunition for identification and banning online sales of ammunition.

President Obama, attending a prayer vigil in Newtown on Sunday, said that he was ready to back action that would address such violence.

Are we really prepared to say that were powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? he said. Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?

Although he was short on specifics, a number of observers said that Obamas strong language suggested he was ready to do what he had avoided in his first term: Advance assault weapons restrictions.

In addition to Feinstein and Schumer, a number of other Jewish lawmakers have also weighed in. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), who in the next Congress will be the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that expressions of sympathy must be matched by concrete actions.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), who is retiring, expressed support for an assault weapons ban and proposed a national commission on mass shootings.

In addition to banning assault weapons, Jewish groups are also seeking broader initiatives to address violence.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who directs American Friends of Lubavitch, said he would bring to the attention of lawmakers a study that links mandatory moments of silence to drops in juvenile violence.

Turnbull of Jewish Women International said that any legislation should deal also with identifying and treating individuals whose mental health should preclude access to weapons.

We will back any legislation that bans assault weapons and the ammunition as well as giving families what they need to treat individuals with a proclivity toward violence, said Turnbull, a former vice-chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. I think this will be the big idea, that the president is not going to limit the conversation to just guns."

Before the deportations to the ghettos, Hitler used laws to disarm the Jews. The Jews listened to these laws and gave up their firearms. The Gestapo were easily able to round up the Jews and send them to the camps, with no resistance.

“Assault weapons enable a shooter to fire multiple rounds without stopping to reload as they automatically expel and load ammunition with each trigger-pull,” B’nai B’rith said in a statement. “There is no sane, acceptable, reasonable need in a civilian setting to fire off large rounds of ammunition.”

Prophesy - Israel will give up it’s independence for peace to the anti-Christ. Then the nations on her borders will attack and almost annihilate Israel. Then Yashua, who will come as the conquering Messiah to save her. Yashua first came as the suffering Messiah for Israel who turned against Him. Lots of good stuff in Revelation.

R/ Janey
Have A Blessed Christmas.

29
posted on 12/18/2012 4:09:11 PM PST
by SkyDancer
(Live your life in such a way that the Westboro church will want to picket your funeral.)

"Assault weapons enable a shooter to fire multiple rounds without stopping to reload as they automatically expel and load ammunition with each trigger-pull," B'nai B'rith said in a statement. "There is no sane, acceptable, reasonable need in a civilian setting to fire off large rounds of ammunition."

There are so many logical inconsistencies and so much ignorance of firearms and their function that if I refuted them one by one I would be here for the next couple of days.

30
posted on 12/18/2012 4:11:06 PM PST
by Hardastarboard
(Bringing children to America without immigration documents is child abuse. Let's end it.)

“Can anybody explain the Jewish mindset that they would let themselves be disarmed again?”

The short answer is their Mommie WAS a commie. So was daddy. Most Jews in the Big Sh*tty Jewish enclaves came from either the German Jewish migration (”Brown Shirt” Communism) or Russia (”Red Shirt Communism).

The Orthodox usually are very conservative and often are well armed.

However, the Reform Jews, better described as The Deformed, are Judiasm Lite with emphasis on “Lite”. Like the commies who raised them, they believe that government is, in its essence, good and that we all need more of it in our daily lives. Thus, they can be said to be walking, talking treason.

Why treason? Because America is based upon l;imited government and they want to abolish the Constitution defined limitations on their delusional “Big Gubment” paradise to come.

It is easier than Moses ever would have guessed for American Jews to confuse the Jewish call for a just society with “Social Justice”, the cry of Commies.

31
posted on 12/18/2012 4:21:20 PM PST
by GladesGuru
(In a society predicated upon freedom, it is necessary to examine principles."..)

26 Can anybody explain the Jewish mindset that they would let themselves be disarmed again?

No, but I recall reading on FR that someone had a name for the syndrome: Suicidal Liberalism.

There is something mentally wrong with these people when they set about creating an environment that is conducive to their own destruction ...

American Conservative Union life-time ratings ACU is well-known for its annual ranking of politicians according to how they voted on key issues, providing a numerical indicator of how much the law makers agreed with conservative ideals. These scores (on a scale of 0 → 100, liberal → conservative) are often used in political science research, in news stories and in election campaigns.

JANUARY 1996 : (P R CHINA : FEINSTEIN AND HER HUSAND BLUM ARE ‘HONORED” WITH A STAY AT THE FORMER RESIDENCE OF MAO TSE TUNG [* HOW MANY PEOPLE DID MAO KILL AGAIN?]-—— see CHINAGATE) In January 1996, Feinstein and Blum were honored as the first foreigners to stay at Mao Tse-tung’s former residence.
-———RED$ : big buck$ selling out America 78 posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 12:40:23 PM by ?

Feinstein’s financial ties to the communist Chinese and COSCO include her husband, Richard Blum.
Blum is reported to be heavily tied to the PRC through his far east investment firm, Newbridge Capitol Corp. Blum’s partner at Newbridge, Peter Kwok, also served as a consultant to COSCO, and COSCO Hong Kong Holdings, a company owned by Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing.
...Senator Feinstein is far closer to red China than a few business ties to her husband. The Los Angles Times reported in 1997 that Blum and Feinstein have visited with communist Chinese officials three times. Blum reportedly accompanied the Senator at his own expense and met with President Jiang Zemin and other top communist party officials.
-———RED$ : big buck$ selling out America 78 posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 12:40:23 PM by ?

200? : (DEMOCRAT SENATOR FEINSTEIN VOTES BILLIONS TO BENEFIT HER HUSBANDS’ FIRMS) To call Washington D. C. a Den of Thieves would be the understatement of the Millennium. Please allow me to familiarize you good people with the slimy denizens of D.C., and some of their nest feathering practices while sticking it to us big time. ...Moving right along, another California Democrat, Senator Diane Feinstein despite a blatantly obvious conflict of interest, as a member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, Senator Feinstein voted for appropriations worth some $3.7 billion dollars to her husbands firms. ...(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ... ——The slime pit known as Washington D.C. CFP ^ | January 1, 2010 | Aaron Cantor
Posted on Saturday, January 02, 2010 4:21:14 AM by bogusname

Just an edit for your Cambodia reference: it lasted until 1979 (not ‘77). Oddly enough, the Khmer Rouge were deposed by communist Vietnam (who were in turn invaded in the north by Red China, allies of the Khmer Rouge, the same year).

“Huh? Sow now a semi-auto is a assault weapon according to these idiots?”

We all know the true definition of an Assault Weapon, especially the Gun Grabbers. My point, in the end, was that 6 million unarmed, dead Jews didn’t teach anyone on the left anything. Or maybe it did.

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